


Pretty Little Thing

by LilAnnieSunshine



Series: SasuSaku Month 2020 [21]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fear of Death, Friendship, Love, Romance, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:02:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25604761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilAnnieSunshine/pseuds/LilAnnieSunshine
Summary: “Let her go.” Sasuke said, fighting off the pain of his broken wrist as he stood up shakily. Sakura couldn’t be more than twenty feet away from him, but he knew Itachi could end her before he even took a step. She might as well be thousands of miles away for the good he could do her. “She doesn’t have anything to do with this.”What if Sakura had come across Sasuke's fight with Itachi the day Itachi returned to the village?Written for SasuSaku Month 2020: Day 22: The Distance Between Me And You
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke
Series: SasuSaku Month 2020 [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1812370
Kudos: 67





	Pretty Little Thing

Itachi and some shark-looking freak were after Naruto for some reason. That was fine, because Sasuke was going to put an end to Itachi _now._ He stared down his brother in the hallway of the small hotel in the tourist town on the outskirts of the village.

He summoned chakra to his hands letting it crackle and chirp as the chidori formed, he ran it along the wall, showing his brother just how destructive his new power was. He charged, intending to strike his brother.

Itachi didn’t flinch, when the smoke cleared he had Sasuke’s hand firmly in his grasp. They watched, along with Naruto and Kisame as the charka in Sasuke’s hand died down until it was no more.

“Sasuke!” a voice cried from down the hall.

“Sakura.” He said, a hint of fear in his voice. She followed him. This wasn’t good. He knew Itachi wanted Naruto for some reason, Naruto was his friend, what if he wanted to hurt Sakura too? Maybe Itachi knew what those two people meant to him.

Itachi snapped Sasuke’s wrist, leaving him writhing on the ground in pain.

“Sasuke!” Sakura cried, she moved closer to him.

Itachi was on Sakura in the next moment. He used his superior height to crowd her, his eyes were red.

Sakura stopped in her tracks, staring into Itachi’s eyes as if in a trance.

“Hello, and who might you be?” Asked Itachi calmly.

“Sa-sakura.” She whispered.

“Sakura,” He said, reaching a hand up to stroke her hair, before resting his hand on her cheek. “My, my,” he stroked her cheek with his thumb. “Aren’t you a pretty little thing?” He moved his thumb down to pull at her lower lip gently, parting her lips slightly.

“Let her go.” Sasuke said, fighting off the pain of his broken wrist as he stood up shakily. Sakura couldn’t be more than twenty feet away from him, but he knew Itachi could end her before he even took a step. She might as well be thousands of miles away for the good he could do her. “She doesn’t have anything to do with this.”

Itachi stroked her cheek once more before activating the Sharingan. Sakura’s eyes dulled, then they closed slowly. Itachi caught her before she hit the ground. He looked down on her peacefully sleeping face softly.

“I said, let her go!” Sasuke barked again, trying to summon the chidori into his other hand.

“Kisame,” Itachi said, never taking his eyes off Sakura. “Take the little girl somewhere safe. Make sure she’s comfortable.”

Kisame smiled, he couldn’t care less about what happened to the girl, but Itachi didn’t like death without reason. He obliged his teammate, figuring he must have some plan that would still get them the nine tails.

“Alright.” Kisame opened his arms and accepted Sakura, he carried her down the stairs into one of the hotel rooms and placed her in a bed. “Sleep tight, kid.”

Her eyes fluttered open, she was awake, but it was like she was drugged. “Sasuke?” she asked.

Kisame rubbed his neck. He wasn’t quite sure what the girl was asking. It was at least clear to both of them that he wasn’t Sasuke. “He’ll be fine kid. Itachi isn’t going to kill him. Just go back to sleep.” He wasn’t sure why he was trying to comfort this girl. He figured it was because she really was a sweet looking kid and he didn’t know how to talk to her. He wondered how someone so soft looking even became a ninja in the first place. He really just wanted her to go to sleep.

He touched the Samehada to her gently, taking away just enough chakra to tire her out. “Back to bed, little girl.”

When he returned he saw the nine tails brat trying to interfere with Sasuke and Itachi’s fight. He moved to cut the kids arms with the Samehada but was stopped by a large toad.

The next moment, Jiraiya, one of the legendary sanin was in the room. He put an end to their fight, transporting them all into the stomach of a toad. Itachi managed to get them out, but they didn’t get the nine tails.

Sakura awoke in a hospital bed. It was funny, she didn’t feel like she was hurt or sick, so why was she there? Two masks, Kakashi’s familiar blue mask, and a white Anbu mask, stared her in the face.

“What’s going on?” She shot up in bed, addressing Kakashi.

“Calm down, Sakura. We just want to ask you a few questions.” Kakashi said gently.

“Sakura Haruno,” The Anbu spoke. “Eyewitnesses say you were there during the fight between Sasuke Uchiha –“

“Sasuke!” It was all coming back to her now. She remembered Sasuke on the floor in pain, before someone that looked a lot like him, but older, approached her. “Where’s Sasuke?”

The Anbu’s face was covered by a mask, but Kakashi could tell he was annoyed at the interruption.

“I promise I’ll take you to him, Sakura, but you need to answer these questions first.” Said Kakashi gently.

The Anbu continued. “You were there during the fight between Sasuke Uchiha Itachi Uchiha, Kisame Hoshigaki, and Lord Jiraiya. What can you tell me about the fight?”

“Sasuke ran into me looking for Naruto. He seemed upset so I followed him. He went into some hotel on the outskirts of the village. When I got there someone was holding onto him, he didn’t look friendly.”

“Was he wearing a black cloak with red clouds?”

“Yes.”

The Anbu held up a picture. “Which one of these men was holding onto Sasuke?”

Sakura pointed to Itachi’s picture.

“Continue.”

“I called out Sasuke’s name and that man came toward me. He asked for my name and the next thing I know, I was losing consciousness.”

Kakashi was lucky the mask hit the worry on his face. Had Itachi put Sakura under some awful genjutsu?

“Do you remember anything else?” asked the Anbu.

Sakura thought hard. “I woke up once, I think. I remember the other man putting me in one of the hotel beds and leaving.”

“And that’s all?”

“Until I woke up here.” Sakura said.

Kakashi reached into his backpack and pulled out some dumplings, he handed them to Sakura, ruffling her hair. “Thank you, Sakura. I’ll take you to Sasuke in just a minute, but why don’t you eat something first. You’ve been out for a day.”

“I can go now.” Sakura insisted, despite her growling stomach.

“I need to have a word with the Anbu first. Eat.” It wasn’t a request.

Kakashi and the Anbu left the room. “Well, do you think they hurt her?”

“No,” The Anbu said. “And her story isn’t anything different that we got from Naruto or Jiraiya. I think we have all we need.” The Anbu turned to leave, he had his information, that was all that was important.

“You’re _sure_ Itachi didn’t hurt her, or Kisame for that matter?”

The Anbu sighed. “All intelligence we have on Itachi says that he doesn’t like casualties, he goes after his target and tries to minimize damage to unrelated parties.”

“He killed his whole clan.”

“Sakura is not an Uchiha.”

“She’s precious to Sasuke. It could make her a target.”

“She had a full examination by the doctors while she was out. We even had interrogation look through her mind. All they could find was Itachi putting her to sleep, no torture.”

“And what about Hoshigaki? Could he have done something to her? She says she remembers him carrying her to a bed.”

“She had a _full_ physical examination. Our intelligence on Hoshigaki says he enjoys carnage, yes, but listens to Itachi.”

Kakashi sighed in relief, still he worried there was more to what Sakura went through than she understood.

The Anbu disappeared and Kakashi went back into Sakura’s hospital room.

“Come on, Sakura. I’ll take you to Sasuke.” He helped her out of bed and the two of them took the elevator to Sasuke’s room. He was in a lot worse shape than she was.

“Sasuke,” Sakura gasped. Running the remainder of the way to his bed. She looked down at him, at the choke marks on his neck. “What happened after I went to sleep?”

Kakashi put a hand on her shoulder. “He fought Itachi. Itachi is one of the most powerful missing-nin this village ever produced. Sasuke didn’t stand a chance, but he lived. That just shows he’s a fighter.” Kakashi didn’t have the heart to tell her he lost to Itachi. He was the one who was always supposed to protect them, he knew she looked to him when they were in danger, he couldn’t have her more scared of Itachi than she already was.

Sakura brushed the hair out of Sasuke’s face and the realization dawned on her. “Sensei, before Itachi put me under, he called me ‘pretty,’ isn’t that strange?”

Kakashi froze. He had no idea why Itachi would tell her that before putting her to sleep. It made him worry there was more to what Itachi wanted from her than he let on. “I suppose it is.” Kakashi said in a nonchalant way that put Sakura at ease.

Sakura visited Sasuke in the hospital every day, he didn’t get any better. Finally, during one of her visits, Naruto returned. He brought a woman with long blonde hair with him.

The woman walked right up to Sasuke’s bed and placed a hand over his head. Her hand glowed green with healing chakra as Sakura saw Sasuke’s brow begin to furrow.

He sat up in bed and his eyes opened, they were dull, but they were open.

“Sasuke!” Sakura cried, throwing her arms around him.

Sasuke looked at her, he didn’t push her off. She was okay. When he saw Itachi hand her to the shark-man he thought that would be the last time he ever saw her. He thought Itachi would take away one more of his precious people, Itachi had to have known how he felt.

_“My, my, aren’t you a pretty little thing?”_

Back then, it seemed like Sakura was going to be carried away from him to do it, and there was no amount of distance he could reach to save her. Now she was right here, not a single inch between them, holding him in her arms. He lets himself enjoy it, he’s always happiest when the distance between them is small enough that he can reach out and touch her.


End file.
